A public consultation presented this and one other option – to raise income through park-based events and activities, which the board said would lead to a shortfall and eventually closure.

Council Blames Cuts

Council Leader Cllr Andy Moorhead blamed £86m in government cuts for the move, and said the new model “safeguards the future of our parks and green spaces for generations to come.”

He added that if the council did not take action, “we will see a return to the ’70s and ’80s, with the gradual deterioration of these wonderful community assets.”

Greens Oppose Park Sell-off

But Knowsley Green Party were quick to criticise the decision, which was voted for unanimously by the council’s Labour Majority.

Green Prescot town councillor Kai Taylor complained that the board was not independent, as it was chaired by a former Liverpool Labour councillor. He said the consultation was rushed, poorly publicised and excluded residents who didn’t have internet access.

Cllr Taylor described Brown’s Field, notable as the site of the annual Prescot Carnival, as “a much-loved community asset.”

Protest Planned

The Greens have invited residents to a peaceful protest outside the Knowsley Council Municipal Building in Huyton on Wednesday 13 December at 3.45pm.

Knowsley Parks to Be Sold Off

The full list of parklands to be sold to establish the trust is as follows:

Alt Park (part of)

Broad Lane Playing Fields

Copthorne (adjacent community centre not included)

Court Hey Park (part of – pending separate tender exercise relating to the future of former National Wildflower Centre)

18 Comments

“Council Leader Cllr Andy Moorhead blamed £86m in government cuts for the move, and said the new model “safeguards the future of our parks and green spaces for generations to come.”

Unfortunately the Council leader fails to mention that the proposal to sell off Brown’s Field in Prescot means that there is no longer any large open space recreational facilities left in the Prescot area…none of any note anyway. Therefore his disingenuous statement, quoted above, means that Prescot people, young and old, no longer have any open space where their children can run and play,(they will be moaning soon about how overweight the local children are) where dog owners can exercise their pets, where our local football teams can play. Prescot is to be one massive housing estate, no green space, inadequate educational facilities, inadequate health services, a road system not fit for purpose because all this incompetent Knowsley Council can do is to sell off land, including the Green Belt, to satisfy the desires, yet again, of housing developers who no doubt are rubbing their hands with glee at the thought of more cheap green field land to concrete and brick over. Of course they will blame the Government, not their own inadequacies and incompetence,
There is also a more sinister aspect off the decision to sell off the only large open recreational facility in Prescot. It was this part of Prescot which in the last local elections voted on to the Council three Liberal Democrats and booted out the Labour candidates over a similar issue…building on the Green Belt at Whitaker’s Garden Centre. Now the Labour majority on the Council exact their revenge. That will teach those Prescotions to reject the one party state so beloved of the local Labour Party…vote us out, expect the consequences.

Promises promises promises the council unfortunately are full of the proverbial…

We will do away with scotchbarn pool they said back in 2003, we will build an alternative centre on the bicc development where tesco etc sits… did that happen NO…

St Edmund Arrowsmith school … Houses..

BICC sports and social club land … Houses…

full of it… I bet none of the councillors who sat in the decision meetings live on the doorstep..

I went to the meeting for the BICC tennis courts, bowling greens and old club development site… didn’t have a slot booked to speak, in fact no one spoke on behalf of the public… One concerned councillor spoke up with a B*****t speech and said his concern was mud on the road during the development…

I lived in the wood area as it is known for 22yrs before moving not too far away. My mum always said that Browns field could never be sold as the farmer who originally owned the field donated it in the understanding that it was always to be used for children to play in. I walk by the park everyday & would hate to see a big housing development put on there as I am sure would local residents.

Prescot people were the last to know they had a waste plant in their back yard and now the lose of their beautiful park . Were parents relax and watch their children play in a secure area which is easily accessible for everyone to enjoy. Not just used by prescot people.

Spending millions on a theatre we don’t need and then selling off parkland and sports fields that we do need, very clever that. It’s time for councillors to take off the blinkers and wash their ears out, then maybe they will see and hear what their constituents want, have they bothered to ask them I wonder. Time to wake up Dumbledore.

They should hang their heads in shame the people that voted this through. Prescot gets worse as the years pass. I remember one Prescot councillor with his yellow bucket on Eccleston street back in the 80s claiming coal not dole.
How our Labour folk have capitulated, have they not noticed the lack of insects last summer just how many wasps did you see ? never mind bee’s, butterfly’s and the bird life.
But hey you keep throwing away our few green sites and its not only the wild life that will suffer.
You wasn’t happy when the cuts hit our pits you Labour councillors shouldn’t be happy to see our green spaces go they are just a part of what keeps us healthy. About time you got your bucket out again Mr Byron.

Simple solution. Vote them ALL out in May 2018 and get some real, genuine people in. People who care about Prescot not sheep who do as they’re told and keep claiming there expenses.

As previously stated, where are the sports facilities, the swimming pool, the recreational facilities?
KMBC like St Helens will have several councillors and family members ‘advising’ building contractors how to fill in their application forms!! Conflict of interest if they ever declare it!

Here’s an idea. If KMBC are so desperate for land go and ask Lord Derby for some of his? Earned off the blood and toil of local men and women over the years.

Personally, I’d merge this shambolic council with Liverpool, at least then most of the third rate ‘managers’ would be binned off. I wouldn’t let any of them run a hot bath let alone a multi million pound budget.

The proposals for selling off the Parks have now been called in to the Scrutiny Committee of Knowsley Council so it will now be delayed for the time being.
However this is just a delay and the Prescot community need to stay vigilant and not be lulled into a false sense of security. A small skirmish has been won but not the battle and certainly not the war!

“Scrutiny committee of Knowsley council” nothing more than a formality.
It may be presented as 10% of Knowsley parks being sold off, but it’s 90% of Prescot parks ! We’ll only have Eaton Street park and that rat infested, noise polluted patch of land called Carr lane woods left.

It’s a sad day for the people of Prescot.. I will no longer see the hawk the heron the walnut trees and the dam tree, that the children loved to pick every year. It will be houses crammed together and the noise will increase ten fold. Living in an area that has a lot of senior citizens I learnt to live with peace and the respect of my elders. Time to move I think I want open spaces were I live plenty in the countryside . One disheartened rates paper

Sadly the Labour Councillors, masquerading as representatives of the people of Prescot have voted through the proposals to sell off 95% of the green space left in Prescot…ie Brown’s Field. Redrow, Bellway and Barrets etc will be rubbing their greedy palms together with glee.
The only way that this sheer incompetence, bias and actively aggressive status of Knowsley Council towards Prescot could ever be challenged would be for the Council to have a more balanced representation. Sadly in the (almost) one party state that is Knowsley this is not going to happen.